Car Wreck/Brain Sugery/epilepsy/and ME

Before Everything Happened

My Wreck

Me Before the VNS

Well I have decided that I need to tell what has happened to me to the world, whom ever you are.

There are a few things that you need to know about me first though. You know that person in High school that never missed a single day no matter how bad the weather was, That was me.

My Sr. year of High school I was duel enrolled in high school and the closest state University to me. There were two other students who came with me to the university after lunch. Well On January 20th, 2006 the weather wasn't looking that great but like I said earlier I went to school anyway.

After the first half of my day in high school me and one of the two other students left for the university to go to class, (one of the three of us had stayed home; she was being smart that day). As we pulled out of the high school parking lot we hit some black Ice and slid a little bit.

The other student and I look at each other and had the "is your seat belt on" conversation. Then we kept on our way. Less that a mile latter I got a text oh my cell phone, (smart me I picked it up to look who it was from) just as I reached for it my car started to slide and by the time I had both hands on the wheel again it was too late. We had hit the ditch and were rolling into the frozen corn field.

When the car stopped rolling my head was at the feet of the other student and my car was on its side. Now I was driving an older Geo Tracker and just like some older cars if you dont push the seat belt in just right with some pressure they will come off. Lucky me I guess mine came off and in the roll I ended up hitting my head on the frozen ground and landing at my friends feet.

With all of the blood my friend went into shock. It is a scary thing when you realize that you cant move but you know that you need to do something or you will die. Between the two of us we were able to fine my cell phone and call 911.

The other thing you should know about me is the town that I went to high school in was about 30 minutes away from the nearest hospital and to get to the university you had to take the back roads. So not only was I on a back road but i was over 30 minutes away from a hospital and the weather was bad.

As we called 911 there were two sophomore students who had decided to leave school early and go down the same road as us. They were able to go back to the high school and get help. As they were doing that and we were talking to 911 we found out that today must have been my lucky day. There was an ambulance less than a mile away from us with a full EMT crew on it.

They got to us and Even more luck for me, my dad's best friend was the Charge EMT on the ambulance.
(Now trust me, THERE IS NOTHING MORE STRANGE THAT HAVING ALL OF YOUR CLOTHING CUT OFF OF YOU AND THEN BEING 100% NUDE IN FRONT OF YOUR DAD'S BEST FRIEND!)

We got to the hospital and even more good luck for me, my MOM's Best friend was the Charge Nurse on call at the hospital that they took me too. Some one was looking out for me I dont know why but I am VERY great-full!!!!!

When at this hospital they found out that I had shattered the entire right side of my skull, sliced threw the mussel and tendon in my right eye down to the bone, fracture my right cheek bone, and snapped my left collar bone.

But it gets even better..... This entire time from the time of the wreck to me calling 911 to the hospital I was still wide awake. I can not express to you the amount of pain that you feel when that happens. The hospital that I was at could not fix me so they had to take me to the only trauma one hospital in down state IL. Now from were I was at that is a 3 hour drive during the summer, this was the winter so we were looking at around 5 hours. Due to the weather they could not do a flight for life, (lucky me) So they put be back into an ambulance and drive the 5 hours up to the Children's Hospital of Illinois.

I was so tired but they would not let me sleep for fear that if I did I would go into a coma. They did everything to keep me awake, they called family that I knew, teachers that were in class, anyone and everyone that I said they called and had me talk to to keep me awake on the drive to the Children's Hospital of Illinois.

When we got there my luck just kept getting better, if there was a way to say that on any given day luck was given out to people I would say that I was given most of it on this day.

When we got to the second hospital the number one pediatric neurosurgeon was at the hospital. He was retiring and it was his retirement party it had run late a little bit so he was still there. He decided to postpone his retirement by 6 months to fix my skull. I now have 7 plates and 28 screws in my head (yes I am a little screwie)
And it gets better from there. The plastic surgeon who fixed my eye brow had left his keys on his desk and got back to the hospital only 5 minutes after I got there. At that time he was the head of the department. And then it gets even better from there. The doctor who fixed my collar bone and cheek bone was also the head of his department. He has stayed late talking to a patent and stayed even later to fix me.

Now I dont know if there is a rule for how many good things that can happen to a person in one day but I would have to say that that is a lot. I can't even express how blessed I was/am. And it even gets better than that. Now most people who have the head traumas that I did are in the hospital for weeks even months and have to go threw rehab and such. I on the other hand was only in the hospital for 6 days and never went threw rehab.

Two years later I developed severe Epilepsy to the point of having up to 21-23 grand mall seizures in a single day. They were not controlled by drugs due to the fact it was epilepsy caused by head trauma. So the doctors decided that brain surgery was the best option for me. There is a type of brain surgery were they do what is called Grid Mapping. On October 25, 2010 They removed the plates and screw in my head and placed a mettle grid on my brain so that when I had seizures they could see exactly were in the brain it was coming from. They on the 27th the Doctor went in and removed 1/2 of my right temporal lobe down to my brain stem. yet again I was only in the hospital for about a week.

Sadly This didn't fix it either so with all of this and the medications I am still having seizures. The next step is was is called a VNS or Vegas Nerve Stimulator. The easiest way to explain this is it is a pacemaker for my brain. It sends an electric pulse to my brain for 30 seconds ever 5 minutes, and if need be there is a magnet that I can use on the battery to imply an extra pulse when I feel like I'm going to have a seizure.

I know it all sounds crazy and complicated but I am very blessed and I am here to get my story out there because of everything that has happened because of a single text. My life has change forever.
Threw out the next few days I will finish giving the small portions of my story and the feelings that I have felt because of it.